A little colour in life

And now for something completely different...

About 15 years ago when the Olympics were on in Sydney the railway authorities required freight operators to add horsepower to their trains in order to enable the trains to be moved even if one of the locos failed en route. This was the start of the exotic influx for me - locos from Victoria, South Australia and eventually WA all ended up in Sydney. It hasn't really stopped since.

It took this following photograph, or at least the bus ride home from Rozelle after taking it at dusk on a gloomy December evening in 2000, to get me thinking (more of that in a minute).  So here is the photograph - L251 in ATN Access livery, 845 in its AN livery, B74 in the hue worn by all locos of the Victorian Railways, B80 in Murraylander (hinting at a Union Pacific heritage) and then L270 also in ATN Access maroon and gold.

One train, five locos,three classes, and not a NSWGR loco among them, with Sydney's Centrepoint Tower in the background.

Around the same time a series of emails in the Ausloco Yahoo group ran through the locos and the liveries they wore.  I think, from memory Chris Walters who had penned many of the names of the liveries.  So I set myself a task - to keep a score of the liveries I saw and the locos wearing them.

I restricted recording my sightings to public railway standard gauge operations within a day's drive of Sydney - Bomaderry, Wagga Wagga, Parkes/Dubbo, Werris Creek and Coffs Habour.  I have been pretty careful about the definition of ‘a sighting’.  Usually it meant seeing- more recently I have mellowed to include photographs or videos by mates.   I deliberately excluded heritage steam locomotives and rail tractors, as well as private rail systems such as those operating at Bluescope at Port Kembla or in mines.

Even so, after 15 years I have tallied 114 liveries worn by 66 different classes of loco - for a total of 256 combinations.  

I appreciate everyone is going to have a different definition of where a colour or design variation stops and a new livery starts.  This is not meant to be the last word in liveries - just one privateer's personal obsession becoming public.

Anyway, for those still reading - here's my list of the 114 liveries and a total of the loco classes which have worn them.

Livery/Class Total Classes 1950 CR Maroon/Silver 1 1952 VR Blue & Yellow 2 1955 NSWR Indian Red 14 1979 NSW PTC Reverse Tuscan 5 1980 NSW 125 Years Green (amended) 1 1981 SRA Candy 8 1983 AN Green & Yellow 7 1983 V/Line Orange 1 1985 RTM Modified Maroon 1 1985 RTM Modified NSW Green 1 1988 Southern Cross Green/Cream 1 1988 SRA Red Terror 3 1989 SRA Green Frog 2 1989 SRA Marlborough 1 1990 BHP Light Blue 2 1990 FreightRail Blue 14 1991 Countrylink Blue 2 1991 FreightRail Light Blue 1 1993 AN Silver & Green 1 1993 SRA Austerity Blue 1 1994 GNRS Maroon & Red 2 1994 LVR Indian Red/Yellow 1 1994 NRC Grey & Orange 2 1994 NRC Seatrain Blue 1 1994 NRC SteelLink Grey 2 1994 NRC Trailerail Green 1 1995 Cargill Yellow & Black 1 1995 Manildra Blue & Yellow 2 1995 NRC Indigenous 1 1996 Austrac Maroon/Silver 3 1996 SR Yellow & Blue v2 2 1996 SR48 Yellow & Blue v1 1 1997 NRR Blue & Orange 4 1998 ARG Orange & Black 6 1998 CFCLA Elliptical Blue/Silver 13 1998 SR Yellow & Blue v3 5 1998 XP Olympic 1 1999 FV Green 1 1999 LVRF Green/White/Yellow 1 1999 NRC Charcoal/Marigold 4 1999 RSA Blue/Green 1 1999 RTM Modified Candy 1 2000 3801 Ltd Black/Red 1 2000 3801 Ltd Tuscan/Cream 1 2000 ACT ARHS Tuscan/Russet 1 2000 ATN Maroon & Gold 1 2000 CRT Light Blue 1 2000 EDI Royal Blue 1 2000 FA Green 6 2000 Murraylander Yellow 1 2000 Federation Orange 1 2001 AN Green Modified for FA 1 2001 Central Park Purple/White 1 2001 LVRF Castrol Grey 1 2001 LVRF Green/White 1 2001 R&H Transport Red/White 2 2001 RIC Butter Menthol 1 2002 CFCLA All Maroon 1 2002 CFCLA Blue/Yellow Whiskers 1 2002 CFCLA Green/Yellow Whiskers 1 2002 CFCLA Straight Blue/Silver 1 2002 LVRF Strawberry & Custard 1 2002 RTS All Blue 2 2003 PN Ghan Red 2 2003 PN Blue Cab 1 2003 PN Gold Cab 11 2003 ARG Dark Blue 1 2004 Patricks Big Red 4 2004 South Spur Two Blues 2 2004 SSR Yellow/Black 10 2005  PN Indian Pacific Blue 1 2005 Countrylink Blue 1 2005 QRN Ochre/Black 8 2008 CFCLA All Blue 2 2006 Danish Red/Black 1 2006 IRA Silver 2 2007 PN Southern Cross 2 2007 ARG All Orange 1 2007 Allco Blue & Yellow 1 2007 Auscision Orange/Silver 1 2008 LVR Modified Red Terror 1 2006 SCT Black, Red & White 3 2008 HVRT Silver/Yellow 1 2008 Coote Green/Yellow 7 2008 PN Southern Spirit Green 1 2008 El Zorro Orange/Grey 2 2008 EDI Blue & White 2 2008 ARG Yellow/Maroon 1 2007 PN Lifesaver 1 2010 Graincorp Sky Blue 1 2010 Whitehaven Blue/White 1 2010 Railpower Black 1 2010 Xstrata Grey/Blue & Yellow 1 2010 Freightliner Gold/Green 2 2010 QUBE Silver/Yelllow 4 2010 QRN Sun Yellow 4 2011 Weipa Orange 1 2010 RTM Royal Blue 1 2011 IP Yellow 1 2012 SSR Green/Yellow 1 2012 JRW Maroon/White 1 2012 QUBE Grey/Yelllow 1 2012 CRL Yellow, Red & Black 2 2012 Bradken Blue/White 1 2013 Black Caviar Salmon/Black 1 2013 NRE Gold/ Blue 1 2013 JHCRN White/Red 1 2014 SSR Yellow/Black 1 2014 MRL Red/Grey 1 2014 PN Revised IP Blue/Gold 1 2014 FIE Red White & Blue 1 2015 SSR IP Black/Yellow 1 2015 CFCLA/Freightliner mashup 1 2015 Regional Connect Green/Grey 1

Enough of this, I have a 15 year old spreadsheet to tend to! Ciao for now, Don

49 Call of the Board

Haven't tried to run through a class for a while, mainly because I run out o things to say.  Still, its raining here in Sydney and there is ironing to do so I was thinking about running through the 48s I have known... better go with the 49s.

Here's the class leader at Bathurst, sandwiched between two air-conditioned 80 class locos. Must have been summer.

In 1993 a mate of mine at work mentioned there was a green loco shunting Rozelle yard when he came to work.  That evening I raced over there at dusk, to find a shiny green 4902.  Then I slightly blurred the photo - and only found out that I had 3 weeks later when I got the film developed. Still a favourite.

Then its off to Dubbo for 4903 which, with GL109 and EL64, was about to travel to Sydney on 8178 containers on Dubbo 16 April 2006.

The name on the numberboard might say KL80 but underneath 4904 lurks - Braemar, March 2002.

Once more to Dubbo - 4905 is shut down in the loco depot in 1987.

I'll do a separate blog post about this outing at some stage, but here's 4906 with friends around 1980.
 

And again, back to Dubbo - 4907 in 1988, getting some TLC

I think I have more photos of 4908 than any other loco.  Here it is at Canterbury in 2001, pressed into freight service with 3801 Ltd.

You are going to have to trust me on this one.. it is 4909 (along with 4898 and 4918) on a metro trip.  By the time that this train turned up at Rozelle, I had run our of film. It was 30 August 1993.

 Way out west - 4910 at Broken Hill - 17 June 1988.

4911 powering out of Eumungerie to Gilgandra.

Still in the west, but the near west. Its Lithgow in 1977 or so, and 4912 is on the front of the Central West Express.

This is another 'trust me'... I do have a close up of 4913 but this shot from the bridge at Parkes in January 1981 gives a better panorama of the Forbes Mail it was hauling that night.
 

4914 in the shed at DELEC Open Day in 1996.

OK, I had to do it - bot of a trade mark when calling the board.Trainorama's 4915 is a mighty fine model.

4916 made it into preservation with the RTM.

One last trip out west - to Bathurst in the early 1980s for 4917.

Finally, another to make it all the way to preservation. 4918 at Robertson. The crew was probably off getting a pie.

So that's enough.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Ciao for now!
Don

48101

Time for a tale of a 'class leader', of sorts... and one of my favourite 48s. Little old G-3420-16 entered service in February 1967 and was dispatched west.  It spent its formative years at Dubbo, which mean that it became a regular on the Coonamble Mail when passenger loadings warranted a locomotive hauled set.  

While it was still under warranty, 48101 was caught by the Senior Train Hunter heading north through Eumungerie.

If you want to read more about the railway life, times and history of Eumungerie, then my other blog is for you.  Reading about wheat trains? Love to, thanks!

Anyway, back to 48101.  Like all 48s, 101 got to the spiritual home of all little alcos, the South Coast line.  By the time of its third decade of existence it was trundling workers' trains throughout the Illawarra.  On a gloomy 1985 day it was to be found at North Wollongong, with an afternoon passenger services.

Unlike most 48s, 48101 managed to escape.  Two years later it was to be found in the Hunter.  On a sunnier August 1987 day it was resting at Broadmeadow, in the shadow of its more powerful cousin, 4512.

I next found the beastie at Rozelle yard, on 16 June 1993.  By this time it had received a 'red terror' repaint, though on this day it appeared that it had also been lightly dusted in icing sugar.

Eighteen months later, 48101 was discovered passing a quiet Christmas back on the coast - here it is at Port Kembla on Boxing Day 1994.

The all red livery succumbed eventually to an all blue version towards the end of that decade.  On 11 April 2001 some lovely dappled autumnal light flickered across this newish livery as it worked through Canterbury towards Enfield.

In August later that same year 101 joined 4819 on a spoil train on the Sydney underground.  A family yum cha was interrupted to dash across Belmore Park that day.

48101 has been spied many times over the past decade by this fan - Moss Vale in March 2004, the Short North in May 2007 and regularly at Clyde over the past two years.  Still, I will leave the final glimpse to the Senior Train Hunter - who found 48101 back in its childhood district on 21 October 2010 at Peak Hill loading grain with 48164 and interloper X36.

I trust you have enjoyed this review of 48101 - truly an unsung little work horse.

Rozelle's railway museum (of sorts)

One of my previous posts covered the range of shunting locomotives available at Rozelle during the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Even when these locos ‘went home’ to Chullora in the middle of Saturday afternoon, the railway yard was still an interesting place to visit.  Indeed, some wagons found it so interesting that they never left either.  And these wagons are the focus of this posting.  Yes, I now present the weird and wonderful collection of stored wagons of Rozelle…

Lets start with a couple of location shots.  The first is looking east from the Victoria Road overpass.  I never was really game to get too close to the wagons at this end of the yard it possessed some of the fiercest looking seagulls known to Sydney.  Still, when this photograph was taken around 1990, there was a nice collection of NSW and interstate rolling stock.

Facing west from nearly the same location, the rolling stock goodies just kept revealing themselves.  Even the container wagons are fairly vintage these days!

A seemingly permanent resident of Rozelle yard was Wire Train No. 4.  It was nothing more than an assemblage of withdrawn L-type passenger carriages, with their insides stripped and a thin veneer of ply nailed across at least some of the windows. 

As and when necessary, Wire Train No. 4 was dragged at low speed around Sydney’s electrified area (presumably sometimes meeting its brethren - Wire Trains Nos. 1, 2 and 3?).  Once in the required location, railway workers ran along the roofs of each carriage, tending to the electrified overhead wires and supports.  The following three photographs show Wire Train No. 4 at rest in Rozelle.

A real curiosity was shunting wagon L 37, built upon an S wagon underframe.  It had obviously seen many days, and many of them had probably been better days.6

A very long way from Junee was a former HGM wagon L948, which had ended up within a spoil train for its final days of duty.  I just love its patina.

Nearby was a former BSV bogie sheep wagon.  The years of carting sheep around the state had impregnated the wagon with that familiar smell of livestock, which was faintly unsettling in this urban setting.

This bogied beastie was also parked nearby.    After consulting the learned papers of others, I believe to to be a representative of the NFG family which were built to haul particleboard around the country.

One of my favourite wagons is the S wagon. Apart from being incredibly versatile and ubiquitous, it is also damned cute.  Nearly a decade after withdrawal from revenue service, these wagons were still fairly commonly used for refuse. 

These S wagon photographs tell a great story.  Yes, both S 8604 and S 6058 were required to be confined to Rozelle yard.  If, however, they somehow escaped from the precinct they were to be returned to the yard.  A pretty strict way to treat venerable four wheelers!

The next three relics to be observed were guards vans.  Once at the end of every train in NSW, by this time they were being used by inner west vagrants as pretty decent weather-proof housing stock.  This is one of the reasons I have no internal shots of these vans.

Finally, its time for bogie.  And not just any type of bogie – a 2AA bogie (though I am no bogie expert).  I suspect that this bogie had been donated from a wire train of unknown provenance.

And now its really time to go… look, the signal says so.  This relic stood sentinel for decades and so deserves recognition as part of the weird and wonderful collection of Rozelle.  On a windy day, it probably moved more than many of the wagons did anyway.

Rozelle shunters in the 1990s

Apologies for the lack of posts in recent times; I have been touring Japan and its amazing railways.  I fear it may be necessary to amend the title of this blog to the 'NSW and JR (Japan Railway) Rail Rambler' fairly soon as there is much to be impressed with in the Japanese version of railways. Still, those stories are for another time....

Its time to wander back 20 years to a bridge over the Rozelle goods yards, when it was still a goods yard.  In the early 1990s I was living in Glebe.  While the glory days of the Rozelle yard were well and truly over by then, it was still worth taking an intermittent peak at proceedings.  

A semi-regular Saturday jaunt for me was to head across to the White Bay area via Blackwattle Park, so I could enjoy harbour views from either the road bridge or the pedestrian bridge which still gives spectacular views to the west and the east ends of the yard.  Often my trusty Canon Instamatic travelled with me.

I have a slew of photographs from the 1990 to 1994 period, when the yard had a rostered shunting loco.  Quite often the same loco appeared as the rostered shunter for weeks at a time, which discouraged train hunters such as your correspondent from too-frequent visits.  

So, lets have a look at just some of the locos rostered to perform those duties during those five years.  In particular, I wish to show a subset of the photographs taken from the two aforementioned bridges.  I suspect that the crews tried to park their trusty steed in the shadow of the road bridge, especially during summer.  This made certain photographic contortions to be attempted, resulting in a pleasing range of angles when a photograph was possible.

First up is 4894, parked in an orthodox position (near the crew cars) just to the west of the road bridge.  This photograph was taken on May Day 1990, certainly justifying the long march to White Bay.

I guess my interest in Rozelle yard was really sparked when a workmate who lived near Rozelle arrived in the office one day in October 1990 to say that a green locomotive was shunting the yard.  It turned out to be the lovely 4902.

 

Its younger but equally colourful classmate, 4916, made an appearance on the 29th of the same month.

While the lusty General Motored 49 classes held sway in late 1990, over the course of the following twelve months Alcos reasserted their dominance.  In particular, 48s abounded.  Three examples from the second half of 1992 were indicative of this dominant role.

48102 appeared regularly in July and August 1992, including on the 23rd August.

Towards the end of August the very elderly 4818 arrived for service.  I hope you appreciate the weird angle at which this was photographed.  I have no idea why I did it this way... perhaps it was my arty phase.

4881 also got into the act towards the end of 1992.

Occasionally, very occasionally, one could be unlucky enough to get there when the shunter was working.  On one Saturday afternoon, I sprung a dilapidated 48 (thought to be 4819) ambling down the yard.  I include this photograph to show that I do photograph moving objects, sometimes.

Just when you were getting really bored with things, the old RailCorp could spice things up a bit for you, like they did for me in 1993 by sending a warhorse in the form of 4512.  Throughout the greater part of 1993 it showed that there was masculine life possible in Rozelle.  4512 also demonstrated that (for the modellers of that era anyway), no weathering project was too over the top.

Still, it wasn't all 45s and grunt.  48s still got a regular gig, probably while some poor apprentice was trying to kick-start the 45 back into life over at Chullora.  On 16 June 1993 I discovered two locos shunting - 4810 and 48101 - here's proof!

And just to finish off, it wasn't all Alcos in those latter days.  In August 1993 I discovered 42213 masquerading as a shunting loco instead of the mainline unit that it was.

So, I hope you have enjoyed this vignette as much as I enjoyed hanging over the edge of those bridges a couple of decades ago!